Major public health service, providing world-class healthcare secures Strategic Executive Director for People and Culture
The Brief
The Major Public Health Service sought to appoint an Executive Director People and Culture to lead the organisation’s People Strategy and provide trusted advice across the organisation. The role would be a key driver of the executive team agenda and provide assurance to the Board in matters related to people strategy, risk and compliance. With significant change occurring across the organisation including capital development and technology improvement projects, the Executive Director would be required to lead change processes aligned to the portfolio and ensure the alignment of People objectives with the broader organisational strategy.
Candidate net Promote Score
Future Leadership combines truly personalised relationships with innovative technology solutions to ensure an approachable and efficient process for all our Net Promoter Score across clients, successful candidates and unsuccessful candidates is well above industry standard.
Candidates supported every year
We maintain genuine relationships with past candidates and continue to support them with leadership solutions long term, after they land their role.
Senior Women Appointed since 2002
Over half of the executive search assignments undertaken by our team have resulted in the appointment of outstanding female or LGBTQI+ leaders to high profile roles.
Candidate Retention Rate for 12 months since 2002
Our thorough briefing process and ability to engage passive candidates mean that we go to great lengths to find the right person for the role – long term!
The Process
Future Leadership™ team, led by Liz Jones and Sandra Kerr, undertook a detailed briefing with the CEO in order to gain a clear understanding of the organisational direction and the key success factors the ideal candidate would bring. Along with demonstrated strategic leadership skills and prior development and implementation of performance improvement initiatives, the organisation desired a senior executive who would evidence leadership of significant, high-risk change in a complex organisation.
Key steps included:
- Targeted Search and Talent Pooling: With the client open to considering potential candidates from outside the health sector, Future Leadership conducted a comprehensive search process targeting potential candidates within the public sector, education, and utilities, in addition to reaching out to known, qualified health sector professionals.
- Comprehensive Shortlisting: The client was presented with a short list of highly qualified candidates with exceptional experience not only from within the health sector but also with transferable experience from other relevant sectors.
- Panel Interviews and Strategic Presentation: The Future Leadership team worked closely with the client to complete two rounds of panel interviews, plus full referencing and required probity checking to confirm an appointment prior to Christmas 2022 allowing for a January 2023 commencement.
Emerging Capabilities
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Understands and considers context. Communicates and gains buy-in to the function/organisation goals, direction and vision, promoting change initiatives.
Governance and Compliance
Establishes, champions and measures the effectiveness of an organisation’s regulatory and reporting systems.
Identifies and evaluates risks, develops strategies to mitigate risk.
Culture and Engagement
Fosters a positive culture, creating a sense of belonging and inclusiveness. Creates an environment that encourages diverse perspectives and facilitates a psychologically safe environment.
Stakeholder Relations
Establishes rapport with stakeholders, builds and sustains trusted and collaborative relationships.
Identifies and draws on relevant and diverse perspectives and integrates them to support productive interactions.
Communication and Influence
Communicates with clarity and impact to facilitate individual and collective understanding, inspire action and enable information exchange. Leverages human-centric communication and storytelling to effectively influence stakeholders across the physical and virtual realms.
Organisational Capability
Anticipates future workplace skills and requirements and builds capability across the organisation. Pro-actively seeks opportunities to develop other people’s talent and career pathways and takes appropriate action to address skill gaps in others.
The Outcome
The appointed candidate was well known to Future Leadership from prior partnerships as both a client and a candidate and responded to an approach from the Future Leadership team. The successful executive brings prior experience from within the health, not-for-profit and government sectors. In considering the position, the appointee was keen to contribute to supporting a workforce for people who make a difference in the community.
